10 Simple Ways To Support An Author

I've been stuck lately trying to come up with ways to market my novels. In the absence of a traditional publisher's budget that does this sort of thing for select books, I'm sort of left to my own devices when it comes to promoting myself. Wizards of the Coast publishing relies on the strong brand name of the Forgotten Realms to sell its titles. This has worked well in the past, actually.

However you don't need me to tell you that things are changing in the world of publishing. People have less time to devote to novel reading, and more novels to choose from when they do decide to sit down with a book (or whatever ereader they've chosen).

This collusion of events troubles me as an author interested in continuing to practice his craft in the part-time fashion I currently enjoy. And the virtuous circle closes--this is why I'm interested in finding new ways to market my novels.

So along comes this great blog post by Jody Hedlund titled "10 Simple Ways to Support the Author You Love." In this post, Jody notes how you can do an author you love a big favor by, in addition to buying and reading the book, by taking your support one tiny step further.

An excerpt:

1. Write a book review and post it on Amazon. If you’ve ever ordered on Amazon then you’re eligible to post a review. It’s very simple to do and incredibly helpful (if it’s a good review!).

2. Copy and paste your review onto other online bookstores. There’s nothing wrong with copying your Amazon review and using it on other sites, like GoodReads, Shelfari, Barnes&Noble.com or CBD.com.

3. Click the “Like” button on a book’s Amazon page. (If you're not sure what this is, head over to The Preacher's Bride Amazon page and you'll find it near the top.)

4. Click on the “Tags People Associate With This Product” on Amazon. If you scroll down on The Preacher’s Bride Amazon page, you’ll see approximately 32 tags. The more tags and the more clicks, the better a book will come up in search results.

Read Jody's full article (and all 10 steps) here:

http://jodyhedlund.blogspot.com/2011/05/10-simple-ways-to-support-authors-you.html

Ebook wars

I love to read, and as I was recently surprised to find out, I love to read ebooks on my phone; the fit is just right. Which means, I love ebooks. As an author of a few novels, with hopefully many more on the horizon, I'm interested in seeing my novels come out in this format. However, all is not rosy in the world of ebook publishing.

It seems that Amazon, in its bid to sew up the industry, may be doing things that harm the author's ability to get paid a reasonable sum for writing (and an author's publisher, too). My being an author aside, this also means that in the medium- and long-term, these activities could impact the number and quality of books I get to read.

An excerpt from Charles Stross's recent blog on the topic:

Last Friday, Amazon.com unilaterally pulled most or all of Macmillan's books from their online store. (You can still find them via afilliates or second-hand stores, but Amazon themselves won't sell them to you. Note that this only affects me via my Merchant Princes books — published by Tor, a Macmillan subsidiary — in the US Amazon store. My Ace titles are safe ... for now.)

Read the entire blog here. Looks like I have another reason to hope Apple's bookstore gets off the ground!

-http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/01/amazon-macmillan-an-outsiders.html